Sunday, December 13, 2015

Today I presented my piece. Before hand, I had added sound effects and a small opening and closing sequence to the project. Originally I had planned to be in the glass opening next to the plants, but after getting there to set up the plug could not handle the power from my monitor and laptop. I found an outlet in a small alcove next to the entrance that worked much better than I had originally thought. I had also planned on using a school computer but I could not get my file to export as a .exe so I just ran it on full screen using my monitor and computer. As for the desk, I was unable to get a big old one like I had originally intended but we draped a table cloth upon a smaller one which worked better because of the move we had to do. In watching a few people's reactions to the game, the people who played through it all said it was very informative whereas there were a few people who just clicked the first level and left. Overall the event was a success and the game played really well. There were only two times when I really had to go in and fix something, but past that we had it set up to where my on guard assistant could just press a button and take the game back to the beginning so people could start fresh when they wanted to play.

Since all the sprites were already done, I was able to put together both level 3 and 4 this week. As mentioned previously, each character in the Stonewall Inn talks a bit more casual than those previously. If you click on anyone in the bar it will take you to a similar screen where you get to interview them, but you don't get the option to ask them questions.

In Stonewall I also decided to add music that was popular of gay bars at the time. This piece came from the album Love is a Drag, the song is titled "The Boy Next Door". The vocalist of this piece only recently came forward and the people who put the album together still haven't revealed themselves. This music was super influential for the time because of the subject matter. Since these two levels are done I just need to add an opening and closing scene plus a few sound effects and then the game will be done.

At this point I have both level 1 and 2 recreated. I moved Byng and Malin over to the second level because they were more important during the 30s. As with level one, each character has a different text box for each thing they say, there are multiple rooms for every item and when you interact with the characters in the conference room you have multiple options to talk to them about. At the main desk if you click on the folder it is different for each character, and the book is different for the 30's than it was the 20s. I have also started getting together the sprites for the final level. In this level you will have to go to Stonewall, which is where the big riot took place in 1969. At that level you will be undercover so no one will notice you as a cop. Because of this, the dialogue for each character you talk to will be more casual and truthful than the previous people. Each character will show a side of normal culture that was for the time.

Now that the text boxes are working I started to assemble the first level. Each character has their own dialogue box for each situation, and you interview two people. Since I'm in game maker and I know how to make buttons, each object is now its own button so if you click on the folder you will view their file, if you click on the book you will get information about the decade, if you click on the phonograph you will get to play and stop music by that character as well. Then, in the interview process of each person you have three options to ask them about and they will respond differently to each one. Since most of this was just plugging in, I also started working on the sprites for the third level. After considering the decades and looking up artists, I decided to skip the 40's and make you go on location to a spot to interview. There are two people in the bar, which was a real location for the time, and each person has some history with the place. One of the patrons is Edith Eyde, she wrote under the pen name Lisa Ben for lesbian magazines. The other is a character I made who represents what drag queens and cross dressers had to deal with at the time. The button on his shirt was something common for the time because they added a new law that could arrest people for impersonation.

This week I did some research and figured out how to make a text box work. I found someone else who had a tutorial on it, copied their code, then spent a lot of time getting it to work. The text appears letter by letter and moves onto the next set of dialogue when you click. The text is in the standard game maker font and is white, but it works against the textbox I made. It also makes the box disappear when the text has finished. With the text there was a lot of trial and error, but I learned how to do a little bit of simple coding out of it. Once I got the code down once, I can just copy it for each set of dialogue and change the text the character is saying. The code took a while to figure out because there were a lot of tutorials that taught the same thing but with different codes, but eventually I found one that worked after I spent more time debugging it. To create the text, I had to make each textbox and object and then each object gets three pieces of code.

After attempting to fix the buttons and crashing the game several times, I have decided to switch everything over into game maker. I originally wanted to use unity because it would be a new experience; however, I find that putting this game into game maker will still push me to learn more about a program that I already know a few basics in. This week was spent transferring over sprites and getting all the rooms reconfigured. After looking at how much work I have to do, and also looking over all the information I have chosen I decided to split level 1 into level 1 and 2. Some of the characters were more important in the 30's than the 20's, so I wanted to show them in a time which best fit them. Plus, it keeps the levels not too long so the player will be able to get through my game in one sitting. For level one I am keeping Gladys Bently and Ma Rainey as the two suspects you interview. I am still working out how to do text, but I have placed a text box where I want it for now.The white arrow was made so that people can move onto the next room when they are done with the current one.